The next station for me was the COC of the skijumpers in Klingenthal.It’s always nice to go there even if the conditions (most of the time it’s really windy!) are not always easy. This time the wind wasn’t the only problem. No, this time it was also rain! It was almost raining the whole weekend. Really terrible… it wasn’t heavy rain, but it was drizzling all the time. Not very nice, but hey, there’s no bad weather, so it couldn’t stop me from taking photos! And all in all it was better than the heavy rain from the Nordic Combined competitions. ;) On Saturday we had two training rounds in the morning followed by the first competition in the afternoon. During the competition we had some wind breaks, because it got more and more windy – but we already know about that, so it was no real surprise. The first comp was won by Jakub Wolny from Poland. But his suit wasn’t okay, so he got disqualified. That’s why Anze Lanisek (144,0m , 132,0m , 259.1 points) became the winner of the first competition, followed by his teammate Peter Prevc (127,0m , 128,0m , 232.4 points) and Markus Eisenbichler (133,5m , 128,5m , 226.7 points) from Germany. Vincent Descombes Sevoie from France became fourth with some pretty good jumps on 129,0m and 134,0m. It really looked promising and it would be really important for the French team if he can keep it up. New day, new chance but unfortunately the same bad weather like the day before. The second competition was cancelled during the second round because of the wind. Luckily we had a result after the first round, so almost everyone expected that the second round got cancelled after many wind breaks. This time Jakub Wolny was not disqualified and so he won the second competition with an awesome jump on 143,5m (133.4 points). Peter Prevc became second again (145,5m , 129.9 points), Wolfgang Loitzl third (129,0m , 111.8 points).

The next station of the SGP was Villach where one individual competition took place. Like last year I skipped this station and went on to Oberstdorf for the final. As usual the competitions were in the evening, so it was a great atmosphere for the night race with start and finish directly in the Erdinger Arena. The only disadvantage – it’s again not so easy to take photos! But I have to say that this years photos are better than the year before. ;) Oberstdorf started with the training and PCR on Thursday evening. This time we had perfect weather: blue sky, sunshine but unfortunately also windy. That’s why the training started later. Luckily this was the only long wind break. All in all the weather was perfect for taking flight pictures. :) The PCR was won by Evgeniy Klimov with a jump on 134,5m ahead of Jason Lamy Chappuis (135,0m , +0:13). Marjan Jelenko became third (129,5m , +0:34). On Friday we had an Individual Gundersen. During the trial round we had again sunny weather, but it changed to heavy rain in the competition round. It got better before the race started. The jumping round was won by Johannes Rydzek with 133,5m. Eric Frenzel (131,5m , +0:19) became second ahead of Maxime Laheurte (131,5m , +0:25). Rydzek was again unstoppable. It was a start-finish victory for him in his hometown. The German team showed another strong performance with the next triple victory. Eric Frenzel became second (+41.2), Björn Kircheisen third (+42.3). The next day was already the final day of this years SGP. For the final we had a 15km Gundersen and two jumping rounds. Only the best 30 athletes of the summer were allowed to start. And this time also the weather showed its best side and we could enjoy a nice competition without any raincoats and umbrellas! Johannes Rydzek was again unbeatable in the jumping round. He won with jumps on 135,0m and 136,5m ahead of Christoph Bieler (137,0m , 133,0m , + 0:49) and his teammate Eric Frenzel (130,5m , 128,0m , + 1:11). The 15km race was again dominated by Rydzek. Nobody was able to follow him so he also won the last race of the SGP. Eric Frenzel became second (+ 1:33.6) ahead of Lukas Greiderer from Austria (+ 1:41.2)! It was a historic day for Johannes Rydzek, who is the first who has won all competitions of the SGP! For sure he was the overall winner ahead of his teammates Eric Frenzel and Björn Kircheisen. So it was definitely the SGP of the German team. Let’s see if they can keep it up for the upcoming winter season. Not only the World Cup athletes had their SGP in Oberstdorf – also the children Grand Prix took place. This time not only for the young boys – also the girls had their first international competition in Oberstdorf! It is really great to see, that also the young girls got their chance to compete against each other and let’s see if there will be also some competitions for them in winter. The pictures of the victory ceremonies of the young girls and boys can also be found in the SGP albums. ALL photos of the SGP are now online! Enjoy! :)

After a long summer break it was finally Nordic Combined time again! This years Summer Grand Prix started as usual in Oberwiesenthal – this time with the training and PCR on Friday (not also on Saturday like the years before). Training started at 6 p.m. so it was already dark when the PCR ended. I usually like the floodlight atmosphere, but it was not so nice for taking photos. That’s why the quality of the last athletes is really poor or they’re too dark too recognize anyone! But all in all it was a great start for this NC weekend. The PCR was won by Marjan Jelenko (SLO) who jumped 100,5m (129.7 points), only 0.1 points ahead of Evgeniy Klimov who jumped the same distance. Christoph Bieler became third with 100,00m (127.1 points). On Saturday we had a Teamsprint. It was really cold already on Friday and on Saturday it didn’t get better. It also started to rain, but luckily the rain got better before the competition started. The jumping round was won by Team Germany II (Kircheisen/Edelmann) with 253.9 points ahead of Team Germany I (Frenzel/Rydzek) who were only +0:01 behind. Team Austria I (Bieler/Gruber) became third +0:05. These three teams were fighting for the victory from the beginning on and it was a really exciting race. The victory went to Germany I ahead of Austria I and Germany II! Top 3 Teamsprint 23.08.2014: 1. Germany I (Frenzel/Rydzek) 2. Austria I (Bieler/Gruber) +7.5 3. Germany II (Kircheisen/Edelmann) +12.4 On Sunday it was time for the first individual competition. We saw some really good jumps. Evgeniy Klimov showed the longest jump on 106,0m but unfortunately he fell, so the jumping part went to Eric Frenzel with 103,0m followed by Christoph Bieler (104,5m , +0:02). Haavard Klemetsen became third (104,0m , 0:08). The race followed and before the start it started to rain and also to hail. The hail stopped after a few minutes and after a few rounds the rain stopped also. The sun came out and suddenly it was very warm. Crazy weather – I thought this was supposed to be a SUMMER Grand Prix. ;) But the changing weather conditions weren’t a real problem for the athletes. We saw another exciting race which was dominated by the Germans who showed a real strong performance. In the end they could celebrate a triple victory. Top 3 Individual Gundersen 24.08.2014: 1. Johannes Rydzek 2. Eric Frenzel +3.7 3. Björn Kircheisen +6.8

Hello! I just came back from this years Nordic Combined SGP! Just as last year I went to Oberwiesenthal and Oberstdorf and it was a lot of fun! I thought about going to Villach too, but then I decided to spend some days off in Oberwiesenthal and Oberstdorf and it was definitely a good decision, because I finally had the time to visit Prague and Dresden. I also enjoyed a great sunny day at the Nebelhorn, but most of the time the weather was really poor and cold! But anyway, it was an amazing time and I couldn’t imagine a better holiday. A report of the events in Oberwiesenthal and Oberstdorf will follow and I’m already working hard on the pictures, but it will still take me some time until I’m done… buuut the first pictures of the Training and PCR in Oberwiesenthal can already be found in the gallery. Enjoy and stay tuned!